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Monday, October 17, 2016

UIS 'harvesting' political memorabilia for website

If you have political memorabilia, you can share it with the world and keep it at the same time, thanks to a planned “history harvest” in Springfield.

The history department at the University of Illinois Springfield is hosting an event from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday at the Old State Capitol, where members of the community are being asked to bring items that can be photographed or scanned, to be shared on a website. Some audio or video recording also may be done.

“We won’t be keeping anything physically,” said Kenneth Owen, an assistant professor of history at UIS. “And we’ll have a team of students that are around to talk to you about the individual object and sort of take notes to help us build the archive.”

Owen said the “history harvest” concept was begun at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and has spread to other areas.

Owen said he hopes the “harvest” will bring out views of some items with personal or family meaning.
“It might be that you have some memento of meeting a candidate or going to a rally, or it might be that you were involved in a campaign and someone wrote a letter of thanks,” Owen said. “There are a lot of interesting stories out there, and we’re looking forward to hearing them.”

This story appeared in The State Journal-Register on October 16, 2016.